Calling for a Better World – Remember to Vote

In English

Another attack this month, this time in Nice in the middle of the 14 July celebrations. First, the obvious: this attack, which targeted people and families watching fireworks, was despicable and inhuman. Of course, I send my thoughts to the victims and their families as well as to my colleagues and friends who live in Nice. But I am tired of being an impotent witness to this outbreak of violence everywhere in the world, and I absolutely refuse to remain silent. Like many people, I feel like I’m living a nightmare, in a polarized world in which a tiny minority of violent sociopaths want us to embrace ideas from another time whatever the cost to us, our loved ones, our values, and our dignity as human beings. I hope that this stops and that we find a solution and learn, once and forever more, to live together in peace. But we are living in a very difficult time and we must prepare for many setbacks and tragedies.

The events in Nice also make it imperative that we learn certain key lessons. We, the citizens of free nations going about our daily business, are paying a huge price for wars launched in the first decade of this century by radical and ignorant politicians who manipulated their nations into engaging in a war without end, a war that accomplishes nothing except awakening extremism and hatred in the minds of the weak, the ignorant, and the alienated.This year and next, we can begin to correct this colossal and tragic mistake when we exercise our precious freedom to vote for a government of our own choosing. When we make that choice, we must reject divisive candidates who thrive on the poison of isolationism and xenophobia. Together, we must choose peace, unity and brotherhood. This is what we owe not only to ourselves and our loved ones, but also to the hundreds of victims of these attacks—the men, women, and children; the blacks, Latinos, Asians, and whites; the straight and gay, old and young; the Americans, French, Belgians, Turks and many, many others. They were all human beings whose lives suddenly and tragically ended during a summer evening’s fireworks display, or on the way home from a long trip, or while going to work, or while simply listening to music or enjoying the company of loved ones. Remember them when you vote. Remember them when you hear hatred spewed by radical politicians. Remember above all not to succumb to the easy path of stupidity and violence. We may be weary—but we are always stronger when we act together to fight for human freedom and dignity.

This is what the people of France knew in 1789. This is what the people of the United States knew in 1776. This is what the people of the Soviet Union knew in 1991. And today we must know in—our bones and in our hearts—that this is our only hope for turning tragedy into triumph.

About Franck Marchis

Dr. Franck Marchis is a Senior Researcher and Chair of the Exoplanet Group at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute since July 2007. Over the past 19 years, he has dedicated his research to the study of our solar system, specifically the search for asteroids with moons, using mainly ground-based telescopes equipped with adaptive optics.
More recently, he has been also involved in the definition of new generation of AOs for 8 -10 m class telescopes and future Extremely Large Telescopes. He has developed algorithms to process and enhance the quality of images, both astronomical and biological.
His currently involved in the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey, which consists in imaging exoplanets using an extreme AO system for the Gemini South telescope. This new instrument is capable of imaging and recording spectra of young Jupiter-like exoplanets orbiting around nearby stars.